The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1887-06-11
DOnneIIy's Shakespsarean Theory.


down to US concerning Shake
speare do not, any of them point
to the habits of q scholar or a gen.
tleman. The first glimpse we have
of the family was when John
Shakespeare, his father, was fined
12 pence, in 1862. for maintaining
"a conspicuous sterquinarium be-
fore his house in Henley street,
The first tradition we
have concerning Shakespeare him
self is that of an ale drinking con-
test with the "Bidford topers,n
while yet young man, in which
he became so beastly drunk that
he could not reach home, but
slept all night by the road side.
We are told that he was a deer
stealer, and given to all "manner
of unluckiness; ~ and that "Sir
Thomas Lucy had him oft impris-
oned and whipped.n . The
last tradition we have of him is
that bis death was the result of a
drinking bout with Drayton and
Ben Jonson. Neither his father
nor mother could read or write,
and Halliwell Phillips doubts If
there was a book in the house of
his parents. There is no refer
ence to any book or papers in
Shakespeare's will. His daughter
Judith signed her name with a
cross. Imagine the daughter of
Herbert Spencer or William E.
Gladstone (and the author Of the
plays was a greater, wiser and
more learned man than either Of
them) unable to read or write /! 1t
is uncomfortable. ' Shake.
speare himself never claimed the
plays. He did not put his name
on the title leaf Of any of them ;
for the name on the title leaf is in
every case "William Shakespeare
very often printed with hyphen,
thus, "Shake e'speare," while the
three signatures to his will and
the two others to legal instru'
ments, these being the only auto.
graphs we have of him, are in each
case spelled Shakspere, which
must have been pronounced
Shackspere. And this seems to
have been the accepted pronun.
citation in Stratford. In the re.
cords of the Town Council the
name of Shakespere's father oc'
ours 106 times, and in not one in
stance is it spelled Shakespeare,
1t is given as Shacksper, Shacke-
sper, Shaksper, Shaxpeare, and
Shaxper. In "the poet'sr mar.
riage bond is "Shagspere." =
Bacon's dearest friend, Sir To
bic Matthew, was undoubtedly In
his secret. Sir Tobie writes Ba
con letter in acknowledgement
of the gift of "a great and noble
token,n presumed to be the Shake
speare folio of 1923, and he adds
this postscript.
"The most prodigious wit that
eyer / knew, of my nation and Of
this side of the sea, is of your lord
ships name, though he be known
by another"
Bacon, in the sixth book of"De
Augmentis," says:
GAS for writing, il is performed
either by the common alphabet,
which is used by everybody, or by
q secret and private one, agreed
upon by particular persons, which
they call ciphers.'
That is to say, cipher is q Sc.
cret alphabet. And we find Bacon
corresponding with Sir Tobie, and
referring to.."works of his recrea.
tion,n and to "works of the alpha.
bet.n And then, about the time
the Shakespeare folio of 1923, in
which, be it remembered, half the
plays appear for the first time, is
about to be published, we find Ba
con writing to Sir Tobie that 1t is
time to "put the alphabet in q
, Frame" What was the frame
The folio-far | shall show that
the cipher depends on the paging
of the folio, and the paging IS as Q
frame to the text.s-The North